Dutch voters have overwhelmingly rejected a Ukraine-European Union treaty on closer political and economic ties, in a rebuke to their government and to the EU establishment. With a turnout of 32.2%, the threshold for a valid referendum was met. 61.59% of votes were Against the Approval Act.

Jörg Urban, MP in the Saxonian parliament for the German sovereignist party “Alternative für Deutschland” (AfD) calls for immediate lifting of anti-Russian sanctions. These sanctions are “arbitrary and useless”, said Urban. The MP accused the German mainstream parties CDU, SPD and Greens to harm with their sanctions policy towards Russia the Saxonian agribusiness. Urban demanded a “rational foreign politics” from the German government. Berlin should eventually recognize the Crimean referendum of March 2014 and the unification of the peninsula with Russia.